“Miss Wilson?” I asked, shocked. “What are you doing here? What did you do to my cat?”
She rolled her eyes. “You and that stupid cat,” she said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was trying to protect you.”
“What?” I gasped, not understanding. “What are you talking about? Why are you here?” I looked over at Boo. He was lying on his side, totally passed out. Luckily, it looked like he was still breathing.
That didn’t explain why Miss Wilson was in my room.
Why had she come in?
And why now?
“You’ve been messing with that box for weeks,” she said. “I knew it must have been something important. It was only a matter of time before you finally figured it out and were able to open it.”
“How did you know that?” I hadn’t told anyone about the box. No one. Not even Kiera.
Miss Wilson motioned toward the corner of my room. I looked up at the ceiling and sure enough, in one of the nooks was a small blue dot.
“What’s that?”
“A carefully placed spell,” she said. “Only the strongest of witches can make them. You should have warded your room, child.”
So what, she’d just been spying on me for weeks? Months?
“What? Why? When did you do that?” It definitely hadn’t been there when I’d moved in, but I hadn’t noticed it since. For all I knew, she could have placed it there weeks ago or even months ago.
“Oh, before your aunt’s little visit,” Miss Wilson used air quotes when she said visit, as if my visit with Erin had been something terrible. “It was easy to see what a distraction she was for you, so it seemed prudent to time my spell with her arriving.”
It hit me.
When my aunt visited about a month after I arrived, I’d come back to my room to find it unlocked. It had seemed strange to me that my aunt would have known the password to my room, but maybe she hadn’t known it at all. Maybe Miss Wilson had come into the room before my aunt arrived and had made herself at home.
Maybe she’d left the door unlocked so I’d suspect Erin of being out to get me.
“What is it that you want?” I finally asked her. She definitely wasn’t getting the book from me. That much was for sure. She had already hurt my cat. Chances were that she’d hurt my friends before, too. I had always wondered why Miss Wilson seemed to turn a blind eye to bullying in the school. Now I knew that she herself was a bully.
Was that why she was no longer friends with Erin?
What had she done to my aunt?
And why was she here now?
“The book,” she said. Her voice was crisp, cruel. I thought of the way she had ignored what was happening at the chess tournament months ago. She hadn’t seemed to care that Raymond was being tortured. She hadn’t been bothered at all by the low blows dealt by Jeremiah.
Then again, maybe that had something to do with her robes.
Green and purple.
She was a demon, like Jeremiah was. Had Miss Wilson been the one who told Jeremiah what Raymond was afraid of? Had she set up the entire chess tournament so that a fellow demon would win?
Super lame.
I growled, narrowing my eyes at her.
“Silly girl,” she said, waving her hand. “I know you can’t shift.”
“I might not be able to shift, but there’s no way I’m giving you the book,” I said. The problem was, there was no way for me to quickly shrink and lock the book. Not now. She had obviously heard me whisper the incantation, anyway. Even if I managed to get the treasure chest closed and the book shoved back inside, there was a chance that she would just repeat the incantation herself. I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to use it. Grams had always been uncomfortable around demons, so she may have incorporated some sort of weird binding codes in the spell that prohibited certain magic users from unlocking the chest.
Still, the reality was looking pretty grim for me.
Melanie was in my room. She’d knocked out my cat, discovered my secret book of spells, and apparently, she also hated my family.
Was there anything else she wanted to throw on me today?
Any other obstacles she wanted to toss my way?
Suddenly, my heart sank. I heard footsteps outside of my door and then it was pushed open.
“Hey, Max, I know you said you already finished your homework for Friday,” Kiera said as she walked in. When she saw Melanie Wilson standing in my room, she stopped and frowned. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you two were having a meeting.” Kiera looked from Melanie to me and then to my desk. Then, she noticed Boo on the ground.
She gasped.
Melanie’s eyes narrowed toward Kiera, who suddenly seemed to realize that this wasn’t just a friendly meeting. This wasn’t a meeting by choice, anyway. This had all been arranged by the evil spells instructor who seemed to secretly have it out for me. There was one thing I’d learned about Melanie during my time as a student at Hybrid Academy, and that’s that she always reacted really quickly. She was the kind of person who would set off a spell and ask questions about it later. She was a little short-tempered and a lot hot-headed.
So when she lifted her wand toward Kiera, I knew she wasn’t about to dial it down a notch.
Something inside of me…shifted.
Something inside of me changed.
When I saw my friend in danger, I knew that there was no other way to get through this.
I had to shift.
I had to win this fight.
In my life, I’d made plenty of mistakes, but today wasn’t going to be a mistake. Today was going to be a day when everything finally made sense.
Today was going to be a day when I saved the world.
I threw myself toward Melanie and as I leapt at her, I felt my human body slip away. It disappeared, floating off the way someone might shed a cloak or a jacket. The animal inside of me came out then, and I felt every new part of me fall into place. My skin was replaced with thick, dark fur. My hands disappeared, and in their place, I had paws.
Claws.
Melanie seemed to notice what was happening, but it was too late. I leapt, jumping at her, and pushed her to the ground. She squealed as she hit the floor and opened her mouth to scream out a spell, but I was too fast. I put one paw over her mouth, muffling her words.
I looked at Kiera, who was screaming for help. She stopped and looked at me.
“You did it,” she whispered. “You totally, completely, actually did it.”
I looked down at Melanie and realized that yeah, I’d finally done it. It had taken me months and I’d almost had to lose my friend in order to convince my body to start working in the way that I wanted, but I’d done it. I’d changed into something else, something great.
I’d shifted into a wolf for the very first time.
A sense of pride overwhelmed me. Was this what people felt when they won a sports game after weeks of practicing hard? Is this how it felt to sit down and play at a piano recital? I felt like the whole world was watching me constantly, but this time, everything really did pay off.
This time, I had saved my friend.
I kept my paw securely on Melanie’s mouth. I had her pinned tightly to the ground. I was so big that she wasn’t wiggling or moving. My wolf body was much too heavy for that. Besides, I wasn’t about to let her get away now. There was not going to be a chance for her to wiggle or speak or curse me. Kiera approached the two of us. She petted my back briefly as she knelt down beside us.
“You are a terrible person,” she said to Miss Wilson. “You tricked the school.” She shook her head and let her wings out. They spread wide and beautiful. Then Kiera reached out and touched the glittery dust that coated them. She lowered her hand and held it over Melanie. My paw was still in place, but she motioned for me to move. Melanie’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head. I moved my paw just as Kiera sprinkled the fairy dust onto Melanie’s mouth and nose.
Instantly, Melanie fell into a deep slumber.
&nbs
p; Kiera turned to me.
“Okay,” she whispered. “You can shift back now.”
Only, I didn’t know how to.
Everything that happened had been so exciting and wonderful and unexpected. I’d finally made it into my wolf form. I’d finally gotten the life I wanted out of everything, but now I was…stuck. That totally wasn’t fair.
I closed my eyes and tried to think, tried to imagine myself as a girl, but when I opened my eyes, Kiera was still there, and I was still an animal.
Well, darn.
Chapter 14
By the time Alicia Gregory had come to the room and sent for my aunt, I had grown weary of being in my wolf form. I’d felt powerful and strong, of course, but I also kind of wanted to stretch and feel my own skin again. Being a shifter wasn’t going to be as simple as I thought it was going to be, apparently.
Apparently, it was going to be very, very difficult.
Aunt Erin hurried into the room after what seemed like an eternity. It had probably only been a few hours. Melanie was already gone: taken away by the campus authorities. Headmistress Gregory had assured us that Miss Wilson would be property dealt with. She wasn’t too happy to find that one of her teachers had been causing mischief.
Erin looked from Alicia to Boo to Kiera to me. Her eyes passed carefully over the book on the desk, but she didn’t mention it. I didn’t miss the way her eyes dilated slightly when she saw it.
So, she knew what it was, apparently.
She wisely didn’t say anything about it in front of the others.
“Max,” she said, squatting in front of me. “I came as soon as I could. What happened?” Obviously, I couldn’t speak, but Alicia Gregory filled her in.
“Apparently, our Miss Wilson has had it in for your niece for some time now,” she said.
“Was she involved in Max’s grandmother’s kidnapping?”
She didn’t say murder.
That offered me a little bit of relief.
She didn’t say murder.
“As far as we can tell, she wasn’t involved in that,” the headmistress said. “It seems as though her involvement in Max’s life began only once Max was a student.”
“It makes sense, I suppose,” Erin sighed and ran her hands through her hair. “She probably wanted to get back at me for how our friendship ran amuck all those years ago.”
“What did happen between you?” Kiera asked curiously. I was glad because I wanted to know, too, but I couldn’t ask. I opened my mouth and tried to speak again, but a low growl came out instead of real words.
Come on, mouth.
Come on.
“What always happens?” Erin asked gently. “I started dating. Our friendship faded away. She wanted more and more of my attention, but, well,” Erin shrugged. “I wanted other things, too. I was sorry when she stopped wanting to get together and do spells and work on potions together. Despite dating, I’d always tried to make time for her, but,” Erin shook her head sadly. “It was what it was. Sometimes people drift apart when they start to grow up. It’s natural.”
“That doesn’t make it easy,” Kiera put her hand on Erin’s shoulder.
“No,” Erin shook her head. “It doesn’t.”
“Max is a good person,” Kiera said. “She didn’t deserve to be attacked, but it’s not your fault. You know that, don’t you?” She seemed concerned that Erin would blame herself, which was interesting. I felt a twinge of guilt at ever suspecting that my aunt didn’t have my back, but then I pushed that feeling away. There was no room for regret here. Not today.
“I know,” Erin said, but there was something in her voice that made me not believe her.
She did blame herself.
For what?
She was the reason I came to Hybrid Academy in the first place, but she couldn’t have known what would happen once I arrived. It definitely wasn’t her fault that Melanie had chosen to release her aggression on me. That was nobody’s fault, least of all Erin’s.
The thing about life choices is that there are always consequences. Sometimes we just can’t possibly predict was those consequences are going to be. Going to a new school should have been the perfect way to better myself while Erin tried to find out what happened to Grandma. It was supposed to be the safe house to reside in while I tried to learn magic, but as it turned out, it was also the perfect catalyst for someone my aunt knew years ago to get some sort of petty revenge.
Only Melanie’s plan had failed.
She hadn’t gotten revenge, hadn’t taken the most important thing to me, and hadn’t destroyed my friends.
“Okay, Max,” Erin said. Her voice brought me back to the present. I turned toward her, looking at her. “Are you ready?”
I looked at my aunt in that moment. She really did remind me so much of my father. She was strong and kind and passionate. She was beautiful and she was gentle. There was something about her that made her stand out from all the other witches I knew.
There was something magical about Erin.
I nodded, slowly.
Erin sat down in front of me. She was directly on the floor with her legs crossed. In this moment, she looked less like a powerful coven leader and more like the aunt I remembered from my childhood. The Erin from long ago was playful and sweet. In this moment, I liked to think she came back to me a little bit.
“Close your eyes.”
I did as she asked. Then I felt Erin’s hands on my neck. I tried to relax my body, but I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. It didn’t make me nervous, but I couldn’t quite relax.
Erin seemed to be able to tell.
“Okay,” she whispered, petting me. “Don’t worry about them.” A pause. “Kiera, Alicia, would you mind giving us a minute?”
“Of course,” Kiera said.
“Take all the time that you need,” Alicia added.
The two women left the room and closed the door behind them. Now it was just my aunt, my familiar, and me. Now it was time to prove that I wasn’t a broken shifter. I really could change back.
“Breathe,” my aunt advised me, so I tried to.
I focused on taking deep breaths in and out, in and out. I breathed rhythmically. My aunt pet me gently and as she did, she sang to me. She chose magical lullabyes I remembered from my childhood. She sang me songs I hadn’t heard in many, many years.
She sang to me until I felt every part of my body truly relax.
And then she spoke.
“Imagine you’re in a field, Max. You’re running through a field of wildflowers. You’re chasing something – a butterfly – but you can’t quite catch it.”
My aunt’s imagery sprang to life in my mind and I honed in on the butterfly in my imagination, focusing all of my energy on it.
“You run and run,” my aunt said. “But then you realize it’s late and you need to go home. The time to play has ended. It’s time to go home,” she spoke softly.
Nodding, I imagined myself turning and leaving the field. I moved back through the wildflowers, walking carefully, striding. My entire body moved with purpose and determination as I made my way back to the cabin I shared with my grandmother. That was the home I imagined. That was the home I thought of.
Even in this visualization exercise, it was always about my grandmother.
Everything came back to Mémère.
Always.
“Go home, Max,” my aunt said. “It’s time to go home. Playtime is over. Everything is fine. Everyone is safe. Just go home.”
Something came over me as she spoke and my body adjusted, changing from shifter and back to human. Instead of being a wolf, I was now a girl. Instead of being certain that I’d never be able to accomplish shifting, I was overcome with the realization that all it took was some training and practice.
I looked down at myself: totally human.
I looked like a real girl again.
Erin caught my eye and smiled. She reached for a blanket and wrapped it around me, offering me warmth, comfort, and a littl
e bit of modesty.
“You did it,” she said. “You really did it.”
“All thanks to you,” I said.
“Nah,” Erin shook her head. “This was all you, sweetie. You could have done it without me. I just gave you a little push.”
I looked toward my desk and saw that the book was still there. Erin followed my gaze. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
“Your grandmother’s spell book,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“That’s what Melanie wanted.”
“I think she just wanted it because I obviously thought it was important,” I told my aunt. “She didn’t know what it was.”
“And you do,” Erin said.
“I think it’s going to help us find my grandmother,” I said. “Erin, I think she’s alive. I can feel it. I know it. That book is going to help us find the way, but you have to let me help.”
She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“No keeping me locked away,” I told her. “I want to keep training here, but I also need to know that I’ll be able to help search for Mémère when the time is right.”
Erin considered what I was saying. For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me to shove it, but then she smiled.
“You got it, Max.”
Relief filled my heart in a rush, overwhelming me. This was it. This was really it. We were going to find out where Mémère was. We were going to find who took her. We were going to accomplish everything we set out to and, most importantly, I was going to be able to do it in both shifter and human forms.
Finding her would take time.
It would be hard, exhausting.
But we could do it because now, things were different.
Now we had each other.
And I had my wolf.
Epilogue
It was over.
The hard part was finished.
Somehow, I’d managed to survive almost an entire year at Hybrid Academy. It hadn’t been easy. Not by a long shot. It had been worth it, though. I’d built friendships and I’d learned magic and I’d discovered my ability to shift. I’d changed so much as a person. I’d grown. I’d learned that life could be a little more complicated than it seemed on the surface.
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